ACF submits report on Lanka

Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF) and human rights initiative SPEAK are submitting a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) in advance of the HRC’s review of Sri Lanka’s human rights practices in October 2012, a Reuters report said today.

On 4 August 2006, 17 aid workers working for humanitarian organisation Action Against Hunger (ACF) International were murdered in the town of Muttur, north-eastern Sri Lanka.

The massacre accounts for one of the most serious crimes ever committed against a non-governmental organisation. Several legal proceedings were initiated in Sri Lanka, but ACF has been forced to recognise the failure of these procedures and the blatant lack of will of the Sri Lankan justice system to establish the truth and identify the perpetrators of the massacre.

As a result ACF and human rights initiative SPEAK are submitting a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) condemning the obstructionism and flagrant failures of the Sri Lankan authorities.

The report highlights that the search for the truth has been a casualty of obstructionism, the intrusion of politics into the judicial process, a lack of transparency and massive errors during the two years of investigations.

ACF is calling on the Human Rights Council to launch a full international and independent investigation to obtain the truth and identify the perpetrators of the brutal massacre and officially recognise Sri Lanka’s violations of its international obligations.

Following the Muttur massacre, ACF closely followed three national-level judicial proceedings. The proceedings, which spanned two years of investigations, were subject to continuous delays and have been riddled with errors. After the departure of international observers, ACF withdrew from the proceedings and left the country in March 2008 to advocate for a full international investigation into the crime to bring the guilty parties to justice.

ACF considers that it is now the responsibility of the international community and the United Nations to address Sri Lanka’s failures to fulfill its duties under International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.